In a college dorm-sized room inside a large industrial warehouse just west of the Ukrainian Village, Josh Siegel, lead singer and guitarist of Chicago progressive blues band Bailiff, asks if bass player auditionee, Ben Joseph, brought earplugs. Joseph shrugs, and Siegel hands him a roll of toilet paper.

“Use this,” says Siegel. “It gets kind of boomy with those drums in here.”

Subdued and slightly awkward conversation continues as Joseph mentions he likes the wall, which is covered with song ideas and set lists written in black marker. Siegel jokes that one of the joys of renting a private practice spot is, “you can write on the walls.” But then the small talk changes to the business at hand. Joseph is auditioning for a spot as Bailiff’s bass player, and yet this is the first time Siegel and drummer Ren Mathew have ever laid eyes on him.

Bailiff is one of many Chicago bands turning to online classifieds website, Craigslist.org, to find other musicians and gigs at local venues. Musicians such as Siegel and Mathew are attracted to Craigslist because it’s simple, localized, and free. As recent as eight years ago, when a musician was in need of others to jam with, they’d either ask friends or put up a paper flyer at the local music store. But now all it takes is a quick post to the Chicago Craigslist “musicians community” forum to get the word out.

The online shift to find compatible musicians didn’t gain momentum until four or five years ago. Statistics provided by Sierra Communications, Craigslist.org’s public relations firm, shows that there has been a dramatic increase in musician activity on Craigslist in the past five years. In October of 2003 alone, there were approximately 260 posts in the Chicago Craigslist “musicians community” forum. That number would steadily increase each month and the following years resulting in 2,399 posts for October of 2006 and reaching all time high of 4,219 posts for the month of October in 2008.

Once they’ve finished tuning up, Siegel recommends running through the first song from Bailiff’s Myspace page, as “it should come together the quickest.” Joseph, a Columbia College instrumental piano major, had a chance to check out the song because Bailiff’s Myspace page was included in the “Bassist Wanted” ad on Craigslist when Siegel posted it a few days prior. Still, Siegel takes time to break down the song to Joseph.

“It’s based on this octave riff in A,” says Siegel playing a sliding blues melody on his guitar. “And in the verse is a straight one-four-five blues chord progression thing.”

After a short and rough run through, all three players hit their stride on the second time around. Joseph stares forward with full concentration as if not to miss a beat while Siegel and Mathew effortlessly keep the heavy blues groove. Aside from Siegel having to announce in the mic that a chord change for the solo was coming up, they manage to make it through the full song without any stops or major mistakes.

“Right On,” says Siegel. “Um, lets give it another try now that we have the form.”

Bailiff parted with their previous bassist because of creative differences in March of 2008 and wasted no time in utilizing Craigslist in the search for a new member. Mathew estimates that they’ve auditioned around 10 bass players from Craigslist in the past six months.

“We’ve gotten a lot more responses,” says Mathew. “The thing that I’ve seen with Craigslist is it’s a great way to get instant responses. Much more than physical flyers.”

Siegel met Mathew the old fashioned way, in a bar, and the old-school method of finding band mates was not lost on them. Siegel quips that they’ve tried other methods including putting up flyers, talking to musicians at shows, and even wearing a T-Shirt stating they were in search of a bass player. But both admit that Craigslist has been the most successful avenue in their search for a new member.

Siegel’s first use of Craigslist occurred a few years ago when looking for musicians to play with while attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He was searching for a free online musicians classified when he stumbled onto Craigslist.org. Still, some musicians are not sold on the idea of meeting someone through a classifieds website that ranges from listings of old furniture for sale to personals ads.

“Some people are weary of why would you even be looking on Craigslist,” says Siegel. “But I was on Craigslist for a while, and I respect myself. So I have to remind myself that there are a lot of people out there who use it.”

Joseph only moved to Chicago a year and half ago from San Francisco where he had already been in a few bands, and this was his first time attending a Craigslist audition or even using the website to find other musicians. While he would use Craigslist again, he still thinks the site lacks human interaction, which is necessary to finding a musical companion.

“I would first talk to people that I know and have played with already,” says Joseph. “An audition is all well and good, but it takes time to get a sense of someone’s musical personality.”

Besides searching for bass players to audition, Bailiff used Craigslist to book their second show a little more than a year ago. Many local Chicago music clubs such as Lincoln Park’s Lilly’s and the Elbo Room are following this trend and using the website to find bands to fill gaps in their nightly entertainment schedule and find replacement acts for last minute cancellations. Lilly’s owner, Lilly Von Hodowanic-Ramonov, has owned the Lincoln Park bar for more than 20 years and started using Craigslist to find acts as soon as she heard about it. While Von Hodowanic-Ramonov has never had a bad experience and found numerous bands from the website that she still keeps in close contact with, Elbo Room booking agent, Brian Bender, hasn’t quite had the spotless history with booking bands who responded to his Craigslist ads.

“I had a band from Craigslist come in and demand drink tokens or else they aren’t going to play,” says Bender. “They wanted to know how much their guarantee was for the night when they knew it was a door deal. They had two underage merch girls they wanted to bring in…and they made it seem like the venue was the bad guy.”

But Bender agrees that the positives of using Craigslist to find musicians far outweigh the negatives.

“The great thing about Chicago is that so many people live here so tons of people check out Craigslist everyday,” says Bender. “Post a bulletin and then six hours later it’s all the way at the bottom of the page and there are 40 new bulletins up. There’s so much to choose from.”

Though the members of Bailiff appear to be in good spirits after running through three songs and playing for about an hour, bass player auditionee Joseph knows that he isn’t a shoo-in for the gig. Bailiff already have more bassists from Craigslist lined up for auditions later in the week and gave Joseph warning that they won’t make a decision until they complete the full round of try outs. But Siegel and Mathew compliment Joseph on his playing and tell him they might give him a call later on.

As everyone packs up their gear for the night, Mathew asks Joseph his age to which he replies 19. This information must have never made it through their e-mail correspondence because Siegel and Mathew, both 27 year-olds, are surprised at his answer but still joke about it.

“The beard fooled me,” says Siegel. “Well, I guess we won’t do keg stands now.”

By Richard Giraldi

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is a few months old, and at this time Bailiff have their new bass player. According to their Myspace, Adam Schneider is the newest addition to the group. Bailiff are also currently gigging in the Chicago area. When we get their latest dates, we’ll update our events section and this post.